According to the most recent data from the World Health Organization, from a total of fifty-eight million deaths worldwide, cancer accounted for thirteen percent of all deaths. Deaths from cancer in the world are projected to rise, with an estimated nine million people dying from cancer in the year 2015 and over eleven million dying in the year 2030. Of all cancers, colorectal cancer is the third leading cause of cancer-related deaths in the U.S., while pancreatic cancer is the eleventh most common cancer and the fourth leading cause of cancer death in both men and women. This grim scenario shows the great need for new cancer diagnostics and therapies.
Modern technology, such as that involving the use of hybridomas, has made available to researchers and clinicians sources of highly specific and potent monoclonal antibodies useful in general diagnostic and clinical procedures. For example, there are now therapeutic antibodies approved by the FDA for the treatment of colorectal cancer, such as AVASTIN® (bevacizumab, Genentech, Inc.), ERBITUX® (cetuximab injection, ImClone Sys. Inc./Merck/Bristol-Myers Squibb), and VECTIBIX® (panitumumab, Amgen Inc.).
Yet the most important challenge in fighting cancer remains the pursuit of early diagnosis. The more advanced a cancer is when diagnosed, the less likely it is that therapy will be effective. The American Cancer Society estimates that ninety percent of Americans diagnosed with stage 1 colon cancer are still alive five years after diagnosis, but only sixty-eight percent of those diagnosed with stage 3 cancer are still alive five years after diagnosis.
Hence, despite the advances in cancer research, there remains a need, for recombinant monoclonal antibodies useful for the early diagnosis and treatment of colon and pancreatic carcinomas.